“9.61x6.69” b2815 Tissue Engineering and Nanotheranostics
Plasmonic Nanoparticles Application in Biosensor and Bioimaging 187
fluorescent and Raman signal effectively and simultaneously. Due to
the simple spectra, this sensor do not generate enhanced fluores
cence background and is commercially available at low cost of small
molecular reporter,201,202 therefore, they are widely used to fabricate
multiplex SERs nanoprobes.203,204 F–SERs dots mentioned above
have been employed to detect the expression level of three proteins
(CD34, Sca1, and SPC) simultaneously in bronchioalveolar stem
cells in the murine lung. Followup researchers explore the superb
multiplexing capability of Raman spectroscopy, and they successfully
separated 10 different SERs nanoparticles after subcutaneous injec
tion into a nude mouse.
6.3. Nanocarriers
Gold nanostructures are attractive as nanocarriers due to their non
toxic and high biocompatibility properties, such as tunable control in
a variety of shapes and ease of surface modification. Investigation of
the acute and subacute oral toxicity of AuNPs in rats205,206 for 28 days
by Pokharkar et al. and Zhang et al. show no subacute toxicities, such
as changes in clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, hemato
logical parameters, organ weights and histopathological changes,
were observed at lower doses. However, a decrease in the red blood
cells (RBCs) count was observed with increased accumulation in
spleen at higher doses. Thus, gold nanostructures could serve as car
riers and are carefully considered and prepared to prevent particle
aggregation, nonspecific protein adsorption, and the uptake of circu
lating gold nanostructures by the reticuloendothelial system, to pro
long circulation in the blood stream and to increase the accumulation
of gold nanostructures in tumors through passive targeting. Liang
et al. demonstrated that small (2 nm) AuNPs functionalized with
therapeutic peptides (PMI) and targeting peptides (CRGDK) exhib
ited strong anticancer activity in vitro.^207
Gold nanostructure are also capable of regulating drug release by
outside stimulus, such as intracellular GSH changes, pH changes,
light and heat. ViveroEscoto et al. has developed a photoinduced
controlled release of pacilitaxel. Upon photoirradiation, the